My most memorable Christmas ever was attending midnight mass at St. Peter's Basilica in 1977. At the hostel in Florence I ran into an Aussie I had met months earlier at the hostel in Bath. She and I decided to go to Rome for Christmas and share a room in a pensione. We got on the train and it was standing room only, but we struck up a conversation with an Italian guy who said he would help us see a bit of Rome and get tickets to the mass. No snickering out there, he was a nice person.
He did take us around a bit in his car, but he discovered that there were no tickets to be had for the seating, so he went inside St. Peter's with us and showed us what we needed to do to get the best view. It was still a couple of days before Christmas Eve, but everything was already set up.
We followed his instructions and advice and managed to get a viewing spot right at the corner of the back of the seats and the blocked off aisle. We did what he told us to do. We arrived by cram packed bus at 22:00 and worked our way through the crowd to be as close to the steps as possible. Everyone knew there would be a long wait. The crowd was happy and people spontaneously sang Christmas carols in a variety of languages. That was a special experience in and of itself.
We waited with the crowd for an hour until we were let in at 23:00. We held hands and rushed up the stairs when the doors opened. Knowing exactly where we wanted to go, we got to our spot quickly and stayed put. We waited another hour as the Basilica filled up with people who had seats. The standing room only was already full.
They carried Pope Paul VI up the aisle from the entrance on a litter. This turned out to be his last Christmas mass. He passed within a few feet of us and blessed us both. She was Catholic and I am not. I thought it would be much less of a big deal for me than for her, but I have to admit having the Pope look directly into my eyes and make the sign of the cross made a big impression on me.
The mass began at midnight and lasted at least an hour. When it was over and we finally made our way out of St. Peter's, there was no public transportation available and there were no taxis either. While we were waiting inside for the mass to begin, we met an American woman who was studying architecture in Rome. She knew exactly where we were staying and actually lived nearby, so we three walked home together. I think we got back to our room at about 03:00.
It had been a total of about 5 hours on our feet, standing and walking, but it was an experience that I will always treasure and one of the few times that I have ever truly felt the spirit of the season.
